VCU Health System wins consumer choice award for second consecutive year

By Joe Kuttenkuler

RICHMOND, Va. – For the second year in a row, the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System has received a Consumer Choice Award for providing quality healthcare services, based on an independent survey of central Virginia residents. 

The National Research Corporation announced the award this week after compiling the results of the company's annual Healthcare Market Guide Study, which measures consumer perceptions of overall quality and patient care.  

Consumers across the country were asked to rate their local hospitals on a variety of factors including patient satisfaction, quality of medical staff and overall image and reputation.  VCUHS' Medical College of Virginia Hospitals and Physicians and Henrico Doctors' Hospital are co-winners for the Richmond market and represent two of three award recipients for the entire state.

"We are pleased the people of central Virginia have again recognized VCUHS as one of the top health systems in the country for providing high-quality patient care services," said Sheldon Retchin, M.D., senior executive vice president and chief operating officer of the VCU Health System.

VCUHS shares this top designation with 153 other hospital systems nationwide, including Johns Hopkins Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and Duke University Medical Center. This is the fourth time in the seven years that NRC has conducted the survey that VCUHS has received this prestigious honor. 

Winners are selected based on the results from the 2002 NRC Healthcare Market Guide Study of more than 140,000 households, representing 400,000 consumers in markets throughout the United States.  The announcement will appear in an upcoming issue of Modern Healthcare.

Locally, the survey included consumers in the city of Richmond and 12 surrounding counties.  

Founded in 1981, the NRC specializes in healthcare performance measurement.  The 2002 Healthcare Market Guide is the nation's largest and most comprehensive study of its kind.  The nationally syndicated study is conducted annually to compile consumer assessments of their health plans, personal physicians, local hospitals and health systems as well as their current health status.

The study has a margin of error of plus or minus 0.2 percent at a national level.  Co-winners are named when scores fall within the statistical margin of error.